Picket fence



H. J. GIBBS PICKET FENCE Dec. 14, 1954 Filed Feb. 10, 1953 [FREE] 35HIE]. 11

INVENTOR. HAROLD J. GIBBS ATTORNEYS United States Patent PICKET FENCEHarold J. Gibbs, Columbus, Ohio Application February 10, 1953, SerialNo. 336,140

1 Claim. 01. 256-22) My invention relates to a picket fence. It has todo, more particularly, with a fence of the picket or slat type.

The fence of this invention is of such a type that the parts thereof canbe manufactured by mass-production methods economically so that it canbe sold at a low cost. It can be shipped knockdown but can be set upeasily and quickly with simple tools by mechanically unskilled persons.It can be made of corrosion-resisting materials or can be made ofmaterials which can be painted readily for protection. The fence can bebuilt-up to form sections of any desired length. Furthermore, ifdesired, the fence can be taken down readily and can be disassembledreadily for storage or for use elsewhere, where it can be reassembledreadily.

The preferred embodiment of my invention is illustrated in theaccompanying drawing wherein similar characters of reference designatecorresponding parts and wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of an assembled and set-up fenceaccording to my invention.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a modified form of slat or picket ofmy fence.

Figure 3 illustrates the roll form in which the fence rails may besupplied.

Figure 4 is a broken enlarged detail in side elevation shfiwing thecooperating structures of the slats and the ra s.

Figure 5 is a broken vertical section taken on line 5-5 of Figure 4 andshowing how my fence is attached to a supporting post.

Figure 6 is a further enlarged plan view of the structure of Figure 4showing how two rails may be overlapped and connected and how a slat isattached to the overlapping ends of the rails.

With reference to the drawing, in Figure 1 I have shown a fence made,assembled, and set-up according to my invention. It is formed of aseries of flexible slats 10, one of which is indicated in Figure 2, andrails 11 which may be supplied in roll form of considerable length, asshown in Figure 3, or in the form of shorter flat strips.

The slats 10 may be formed of metal or other flexible material, forexample, a plastic. They will be similar to the slats of a Venetianblind. Each will be bowed slightly transversely, as indicated at 10a inFigure 2, when supplied with the other parts of the fence for assemblyand erection.

The rails 11 may be formed of strips of metal or other material whichmay be subjected to a stamping or punching operation. Such a stampingoperation is adapted to produce the outwardly extending tabs 12 atregularly spaced longitudinal intervals. The alternate tabs 12 extend inopposite directions so that they are arranged in pairs of opposed tabswhich extend towards each other and are adapted to receive one of theslats 10 therebetween.

In assembling the fence, a pair of the rail strips 11 are disposed inparallel flat relationship. Then each of the slats 10 is takensuccessively and is bowed transversely, to a greater extent thanoriginally bowed, and is positioned between a corresponding pair ofopposed tabs 12 on each strip 11, so that when the slat is released, itwill spring back to its original width and its edges will thereby springunder the opposed tabs 12. The original width of the transversely bowedslat 11 will be slightly greater than the distance between theextremities of opposed tabs 12. When being inserted between the tabs 12,the slat 10 is sprung to a width less than such distance and whenproperly positioned, is allowed to spring beneath the tabs 12 which Willretain the slat in position. If desired, three or more of the rails 11may be used. These rails 11 may be used in a curved fence, as in Figure1, or in a straight fence, either of which may be of any desired length.

If it is desired to connect the ends of adjacent rails 11, it is merelynecessary to overlap them, as shown in Figure 6, with the tabs of theunderneath strip extending outwardly through the tab holes of theoverlying strip. Then when the slat 10 is positioned as indicated, theedges of the slat will extend beneath the tabs of the underneath stripand will thereby hold the two overlapping strips together.

When the fence is erected, suitable supporting posts 13 will be used atproper intervals. The fence can be fastened to these posts 13 by the useof simple clips 14 (Figure 5) which are fastened to the post in uprightposition by means of screws or nails 15. Each clip 14 is formed of flatspring material and has a portion which contacts the post and anoutwardly extending spring end which allows the strip 11 to be slippeddownwardly behind it. Thus, the fence will be suspended from the posts.

My fence can be manufactured efiiciently by massproduction methods andcan, therefore, be sold at a low cost. It can be shipped knockdown. Itcan be assembled and erected easily by unskilled persons. It can beremoved from the posts and rolled into a roll for storage or for use inanother location. Or it can be taken down and disassembled easily byunskilled persons for storage or for use in another location where itcan be reassembled readily.

Various other advantages will be apparent.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

A fence comprising a rail having integral tabs extending from the planethereof so as to provide tab openings with the tabs arranged in pairs ofoppositely-extending tabs, a slat positioned between a pair of the tabs,said slat being free of any fastening means and being normally of awidth greater than the distance between the extremities of said tabs,said slat being in transverselybowed form originally and being flexibleso that it can be bowed transversely to decrease its width to permitinsertion between the tabs and expansion beneath such tabs so as to beretained thereby on said rail, a pair of said rails being disposed inoverlapping relationship in the fence with a pair of the tabs of theunderneath rail extending outwardly through an aligning pair of the tabopenings in the overlying rail, and a slat positioned between said pairof tabs of the underlying rail to hold the assembly together.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,668,651 McKinnon May 8, 1928 2,573,239 Barrett Oct. 30, 1951

